Discovering Squeak - Chapter 0
Last updated at 4:48 pm UTC on 16 January 2006
The Beginnings of Wisdom
What is Squeak?
Squeak can be looked at from various viewpoints:
Squeak is a language (Smalltalk).
According to Dan Ingalls, et al., the short answer is that
Squeak is a practical Smalltalk written in itself.
For more details see The History of Squeak .
Squeak is a graphical programming environment.
[expound]
Squeak is a large class library.
[expound]
Squeak is an ongoing experiment.
In the preface to the Blue Book, (under the section
"Smalltalk is a vision"), the authors write: "Smalltalk
research has followed a two-to four-year cycle: create a
system embodying the current understanding of the software
needs; implement applications that test the system's
ability to support these applications; and finally, based
on the resulting experience, reformulate the understanding
of software needs and redesign the programming language
and/or the user interface." (Emphasis mine.)
Thus Squeak can be considered another pass through this cycle.
Coming to Terms With Squeak
Also from the preface to the Blue Book: "Five words –
object, message, class, instance, and method –
make up the vocabulary with which Smalltalk is discussed."
(Emphasis in original.)
